A Civilization V AAR - Part SEVEN!

Brant Guillory, 31 January, 2013

Yep, we're up to part seven. Will it be lucky? Read on and see >>>>

As our Golden Age winds down, we finally get some more boats in the water, another city in the ground, and some coin in our coffers. But money can't necessarily buy you happiness.

Fortify.

How long does it take for a spearman to guard a city? For-ti-fy years. Sorry. I can't believe I went there.

Take That! And That!

Our pissed off archer is hammering that encampment, and not really caring if they spawn any more brutes. He's just annoyed that he has to keep killing dudes. On the flip side, he's still gaining in experience, so that's not a bad thing.

Eastward Ho!

Our second quinquereme is going to check our what's up in the northeast, and see if there's a passage to be found around that ice.

Against the odds...

Idiot Scout Dude has managed to avoid both the encampment, and any local barbarian ships. He's about to make landfall on top of those ruins, and discover...

...absolutely nothing of value.

Yay. A map. Whoop-de-freaking-do. A map of an area I'd already explored, thankyouverymuch. Grrrr... Even when Idiot Scout Dude does everything right, he still gets it wrong. I wonder if I'd moved someone else over there would I have discovered a cure for cancer or something.

Another City State.

This one is a religious city-state, which means that getting them on your side can bring in additional faith for your civilization. If you're playing a particularly religious civ, that's a big help, but I've not found them to be overly useful otherwise. Just keep an eye on their resources, like any other city-state. For some reason, the religious city-states always seem to have a resource I really need. Maybe it's just my imagination.

Wide-Angle View.

Here's where La Venta fits into the larger map. They're down to the south on a small, but resource-heavy, archipelago. Plus, with the shallower waters around them, there may be connections to some other continents.

Hey Look! We Found a City!*

Time to found our next city, and we've already got the worker in place to start building a pasture as soon as we do. We'll also move that spearman to the new city as its garrison.

*Yes, we already used that joke, but it was so long ago, we were hoping you'd forgotten.

My guys ain't smiling much right now. You notice that Carthage isn't even on the list? Part of that is because I just founded a new city, which increases unhappiness. Part of it is because I don't have a lot of luxury resources to exploit (just marble and silver). But nonetheless, I need to do something about this one. I can build a Circus now that I've researched Animal Husbandry, and I need to look into what luxuries I can get from some city-states. But I really, really need to do something about this one. Not because I'm at the bottom of the table, but because my happiness score is so low.

You Sunk My Galley!

Not yet, but give it a second. Decisive Victory in 3...2...1...

Getting Out Of The Way.

Idiot Scout Dude is not equipped for a fight, which is why it's so puzzling that he keeps looking for them. The Zurichians have some firepower in the field, though, so if we can stay out of the way, and just swoop in for a kill here and there like a fantasy football touchdown vulture, it'll get his experience up, and maybe garner some influence with Zurich.

Stuck.

Time to turn the ship around.

Updating the Production Queue.

Carthage is going to get that granary built (finally) and then see about getting another settler on the ground. Mainly because there's not a lot of buildings left to build.

Ruin-ing the Trip.

Hey, I'm allowed one bad pun per article. As long as this was it, because if there's one worse than this, whooboy... My scout is headed toward those ruins, provided my quinquereme can knock off that galley to keep the water safe.

Ladies and Gentlemen Please...

won't you bring your attention to me! We need to get a circus built to distract everyone from what a lousy provider of luxury goods I am. Those ingrates. Maybe I should let the barbarians through and see what they think.

Plinkfest Complete?

We've cleared this camp, but at the rate we're going, there's probably two more just out of sight.

Promotion!

Our quinquereme has leveled up, and we're going to give him the "boarding party" promotion to increase his lethality against other ships. I don't usually use my boats as coastal raiders, especially in the early game when (a) they're relatively fragile, and (b) they're relatively expensive to build.

At Least Someone Appreciates Me Killing Barbarians.

My influence with La Venta has gone up thanks to sinking that barbarian ship. Now I need to find the camp that's spawning them and see what I can do about killing it.

Idiot Scout Dude = Trouble Magnet.

Now he's got a barbarian archer chasing him. The good news is that archers don't defend worth a squadüsch. So Idiot Scout Dude should be able to get a few good licks in, and maybe even survive.

More city-states! More ruins to explore! More battles to fight! And more readers to read it?!